


To Take One's Pain

by Endraking



Series: Audio book option [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Children's Hospital, Gen, Good Theo Raeken, Liam POV, Minor Character Death, Post Series, Sick Children, Sickness, Taking Pain, curious liam, very little editing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-29
Updated: 2018-12-29
Packaged: 2019-09-29 16:01:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17206484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Endraking/pseuds/Endraking
Summary: Liam wanders the Hospital as he does a sweep.  Memories come back to him about Theo since the chimera hadn't been seen since Gabe died and Monroe fled.  While walking the halls, Liam learns something that will change his perspective about Theo.





	To Take One's Pain

**Author's Note:**

> A little Angst spiral I did. I hope you enjoy the pain.
> 
> Audio file found here:
> 
>  
> 
> <http://endraking.tumblr.com/post/182925304164/i-am-trying-an-audio-version-of-a-fic-i-have>  
> 

To Take One’s Pain

 

 

Liam walked the halls of Beacon Memorial Hospital.  It wasn't that long ago that it was a battleground and not a place for the sick and injured to heal.  Memories of those times, memories of hunters killing supernaturals, memories of the Riders, memories of the chimera and the Dread Doctors pull him to wander the halls.  He's not a patient though he would garner a little less attention if he put on one of the hospital gowns.  The lights were dimmed, something the hospital did either to save money or remind some of the more active patients that it was indeed nighttime.  He moved down one hall to the next, walking up the stairs and repeating the process until he makes it to the roof.  Then he hopped into the elevator and repeated.  He was making sweeps of the hospital, but it wasn't from any present issue but his worry over his stepfather.  Doing sweeps in the preserve was one thing but it was almost too easy for the pack to forget that things attack the hospital regularly and Melissa and Dr. Geyer were right in the line of fire.  That brought him to the halls, but his mind was a million miles away as he wandered to the morgue.

He barely pushed the metal doors opened and stared at the examination tables and the wall of doors, latched shut.  His mind flashed back to Theo and hiding here.  He'd never forget the look in Theo's eyes as the normally calm chimera's heartrate sky rocketed, his pupils shrank to pinpoints and the whites were so large and pure they practically glowed.  Theo was good at hiding fear, but this wasn't a fear he could hide.  He swallowed the lump in his throat as he stepped from the doors.  He slowly moved to the elevator.  Once he stepped in and watched the doors close, he realized how much this tiny room meant to him.  "Being the Bait…I'm not dying for you…"  If there would ever be a physical place that meant so much to them, it was this tiny metal room.  He shook away the thoughts as he hit the 2 and the light illuminated.  He shouldn't be thinking about Theo.  Theo left.  Theo disappeared after that night.  He'd asked Scott about Theo's whereabouts, but the True Alpha never gave him a straight answer.  Stiles was worse because Stiles flat out tried to lie to him.  One so simple if the he'd thought about it, but Stiles was clearly trying to throw him off the trail.  He figured it was safe to reason that Theo was still in Beacon Hills.  Just, not responding to any calls or texts.  Or maybe his phone was dead.  As he stepped out of the elevator and stared down the halls that him and Theo had stared down death at the hands of the Riders, he realized:  Theo would never be so unprepared to forget to charge his phone.

 

He didn't know if that were a comforting thought or something more insidious.  His sneakers squeaked on the freshly cleaned floor, the scent of bleach hitting him hard with his heightened senses.  It was almost enough to pull him away from the contemplation of Theo.  He'd heard from Sheriff Stilinski and Parrish, though heard my not be the best word- eavesdropped fit better, that Theo had been living out of his truck.  The now phantom truck that only appeared whenever there was troubled and disappeared just as quickly as if the chimera were summoned by a fairy godmother.  He knew Theo had no one, had nothing.  He wondered how he could even exist in the day to day.  Maybe his mind was preoccupied, maybe he'd let Theo infiltrate the furthest reaches of his thoughts because he caught that faint scent.  Soap.  The good kind.  Except he knew that almost perfumed soap scent was actually Theo.  He'd only caught one other scent with regards to the chimera, or a personal scent, and it was one that when he realized, he kicked himself hard.  The scent of the elevator, both times.  The scent of their anger when he broke his nose.  The scent of Theo's smile when he admitted to knocking him out five times.  The scent of arousal.  But this time, he could only catch the scent of the core of Theo.

Curiosity grabbed hold as he tried to follow it and entered the children's ward.  He lost it quickly or perhaps he imaged that rich, smoky scent.  He turned to walk back out, dodging the dimly lit hallways decorated in bright colors with pictures of happy scenes.  But a single groan pulled him back.  The sound of pain.  He slowly inched around and pushed further into the ward, the white walls giving way to pictures, the smiles on the individuals carrying the same thousand-yard stare that war-torn soldiers carried.  He walked past the closed doors, through the scents of bowel and bladder, noticing the darkness within each room from the glass windows.  Only when he reached the end, a small room to the left with the faintest light along the bottom of the door.  He couldn't explain why he inched further as another groan of pain caught flight, but he did.  His right foot was poised to step closer, almost ready to touch the floor when a new sound caught his ear.  A muted sob.

He edged to the small square meshed glass window in the door and peeked inside.  Even with his eyes glowing, he couldn't make out anything more than a child's nightlight and the pulled white curtain.  He didn't want to open the door, disturb the child that was trying to sleep but his curiosity wasn't abated.  He looked to the placard next to the door and the name B. Talbot hit him.  His mind flashed back to the street, back to Brett and Lori's bodies.  Crumpled together.  He shook the thought away only for the words of his step father to whisper in his mind, "That's the children's ward.  Most are going to leave there to go back to their families.  The ones at the end.  They aren't so lucky.  Modern medicine can't save everyone, and those poor children won't leave through the front doors."  He took a deep breath as a chill shot down his spine.  Slowly, he reached for the door and began to turn the knob.  He felt like he was invading the child's privacy, but his mind screamed to push on.

When the rush of air from the room passed his face, he caught the scent again.  It wasn't the memory of a scent. No, his mind wasn't so strong as to craft a facsimile of the layers of that scent.  Though this was enriched with salt from sadness.  He slipped into the mostly dark room and held his arm against the door to ease it closing.  Once it latched, he padded closer to the curtains, silent in his steps.  His fingers curled against the shadowed white cloth, his heart beating out of his chest as he pulled them back slowly.  More light poured from near the bed of the slumbering child, but his eyes fell on the seat next to the bed or the chimera in the seat next to the boy.  The small child, hairless from treatments, was curled towards the chair, his arm held out, his fingers clasped around Theo's hand.  The pale skin of the boy contrasted greatly from what little he could make of the tanned skin of Theo's hand and arm.  He fought the gasp as he noticed why the darkness clung to Theo, the thick black veins almost entirely blotted out anything resembling normal skin.  Theo was slumped over, his head resting on a placed pillow on the edge of the bed, releasing tiny groans in pain between his snores.  He hadn't expected to see Theo, not like this when the last he saw or spoke to the chimera was Theo's rapid flight from the hospital.  His mind couldn't process it, so he did the only thing he could think of.  He ran.

His sneakers squeaked quickly down the halls as he had to get as far from the scene as possible.  His mind fought to reconcile the vision he witnessed versus what he knew, and it scarcely had the energy to divert the focus to his senses and he nearly knocked someone over as he ran into them.  Melissa grabbed his shoulders, "What's wrong Liam?  Is something wrong?"  Liam looked to her face, registering the fear before he looked back to the children's ward, "He's there.  I saw him."  Panic laced her words, "Who's here?  Who did you see?"  He barely managed to breath the word, "Theo."  Almost instantly, her fear dissipated, and she replied, "In Brandon's room?"  "Who?"  "Brandon Talbot."  It took a moment before B. Talbot became Brandon Talbot but slowly, he nodded.  The question presented itself, "Wait.  You know?"  She nodded slowly, her eyes affixed to the doors to the ward.  "Yes.  He's taking his pain.  Letting him sleep.  It's a mercy that even morphine couldn't give the boy."  His eyes widened as he asked, "What?  What's wrong with him?"  Melissa sighed and whispered lowly, "I'm not supposed to mention anything.  But since you saw that and you're only going to continue asking.  Brandon is dying.  Cancer.  Aggressive and Terminal."  "Then why is Theo here?"  "To give him a peaceful slumber."

"So he's been here, the entire time, with Brandon, and you knew?"  She turned to him and he knew he looked to her harshly, but she gently shook her head, "No.  He only met Brandon a couple of weeks ago.  Before Brandon, it was Claire.  Before Claire, it was Jason."  He fought to control his tone, "What?  Why?"  A certain tenderness entered her voice as she explained, "It was his idea.  After the hunters, Theo came back.  He waited with Gabe's body in the morgue before he wandered the hallways like a ghost.  That's how he met Sierra.  Sierra's family was killed during Monroe's fight and here she was, half werecoyote, half human, her body fighting against itself.  Her life was pain.  So he stayed with her.  Until.  After that, he approached me and your father.  He had a simple request, he needed a roof over his head and food.  In exchange, he'd help care for the sickest children.  At first, I was skeptical, but now."  He closed his eyes tightly.  Theo has been at the hospital the entire time.  Living at the hospital.  Providing relief to children staring at death.  The question in his mind slipped, "Why?"  He spoke a little louder than he meant and figured that was why Melissa gasped.

Theo's broken voice answered, the scent of tears washing over him as the words struck, "They don't deserve that pain.  I'm taking it away from them."  He turned to face Theo and saw the sheer emotional exhaustion as Theo looked past him and Melissa asked, "Brandon?"  Theo tilted his head forward, a tear falling to the floor as he shook his head.  Melissa pursed her lips as she calmly replied, "I'll find Doctor Geyer."  She stepped away and he closed the distance, "Theo this can't be good for you?"  Theo raised his head and those wounded greys shot back, "And their suffering is good for them?  I've earned that kind of pain.  Those kids.  They're innocent."  He opened his mouth to reply but he couldn't think of the words.  The heavy silence fell for several minutes before he asked, "The texts, the calls?"  Theo finally wiped away the tears, his cheeks still puffy, "Nothing that important, clearly.  Beacon Hills hasn't burned to the ground."

He wanted to argue, he wanted to scream but how could he when Theo was doing something so incredibly selfless.  He didn't know he'd experience the day when Theo's virtue made him feel dirty and selfish.  He bit his lip as he broke the gaze and David stepped to Theo, "Brandon?"  The crack in Theo's voice broke a part in him, "I'm sorry sir.  It wasn't long ago."  He couldn't miss the closing of Theo's throat as no more words could pass.  David rubbed Theo's shoulder and looked to him, "Li.  Maybe you and Theo should grab a coffee.  This isn't how I wanted you to learn this but maybe it's for the best."  He replied with a yes sir as his father continued down the hall.  As if the entire world shifted, he looked to Theo and could've sworn the chimera who once killed remorselessly, the man that stared down death at the hands of the riders, his savior from himself and the hunters, looked to be so small, so turned in on himself.  He wrapped an arm around Theo and slowly pushed him to walk.  Theo leaned against him heavily as the words slipped from his lips, words that would chill Liam to the bone, "It's not just pain.  That they give.  When.  It happens.  They give their memories too."

When they reached the cafeteria, only the lowest lights were present.  Theo shuffled from his grip to a nearby table while he walked to the coffee pot.  He poured them each a cup and grabbed the sugar and cream packets with a couple of stirrers before he walked back.  Theo's head was tilted forward, his eyes focused on the table.  Theo took the cup and added cream and sugar without a word, without looking, like this was a cycle for him.  As he stirred the darkness into something light, he admitted, "They don't think I'm real.  Every one of them had known so much pain for so long they figured I couldn't be real.  To live, for however short, without feeling that crushing pain.  I had to be a dream.  An impossible dream.  A chimera."

The words struck a chord with him.  Theo sipped his coffee, his eyes still locked to the table as he stared at him.  He didn't know what to say, didn't know how to reply.  He reached across the table and grabbed Theo's free hand.  The chill of his skin caught him briefly before he felt a bit of the pain travel into him.  It was a tiny amount but came with a tiny whisper, one from a boy that could no longer speak for himself.  "Thank you.  I hope you find a reason to wipe away those tears."  Theo's gaze met his and the chimera asked weakly, "What did you hear?"  He shook the thought away, "Nothing."  Theo nodded slowly, and he asked, a bit of hope in his voice, "I'm done with my sweep here.  Do you want to come home, to my home.  You're cold and our heat is a little better than here."  Theo opened his mouth to respond but the words hung before he admitted, "Yeah.  I could use it."

That was the first night Theo slept in his bed.  Theo rested his head against his shoulder that night, his arms around the chimera's back, holding him tightly.  Theo sobbed then too.  In between the gentle snores but at least he was warm.  Held by someone who found yet another reason to love him.


End file.
